What is the secret to making a good iced green tea latte? I've tried numerous times at home with mediocre success. When I get them in a coffee shop, or buy a higher-end prepackaged one, such as this, I really enjoy them. Maybe I'm just not using a high enough quality green tea. I'm not brewing bottom of the barrel stuff over here, but it's not super nice either. Oh well, I guess it's not all that important. It's not a beverage I often crave, so when I do I have options to purchase it.

Rebbl has put their hat in the ring with this latte that is made with coconut milk. Unlike the Maca Mocha the coconut in here does not taste toasted, and that is an improvement from my perspective. It's pretty creamy and I almost want to say it is too heavy on the milk, but that green tea flavor still cute through nicely, so I guess I really have no complaints. It's smooth and it tastes like the quality green tea that I am apparently not using.

In addition to the tea and the milk there is also honey ,vanilla extract, spirulina, quillaja, pink salt and stevia in the mix. First off I would like to note that I can't taste the stevia at all, so good for them. Other than that you might find yourself asking what need is there to add so many extra ingredients into this recipe. Well normally I would be right there with you, but Rebbl drinks are “Super Herb Elixers,” so they always add extra stuff to give you some health benefits in ways that doesn't mess with the flavor at all. I'm all for it. None of those ingredients are detrimental to your health at all, so I'll take the benefits and I'll drink the latte and I will like it.

Let's cut to the chase. There is far too much garbage in the food that we consume. We ingest so much junk that we would never even consider putting in our mouths if we saw it in its true form and not mixed in with our food. Hell, there are a whole bunch of ingredients that are allowed in food in the US that are completely banned in other parts of the world. We are poisoning ourselves, and for the most part we don't care. I know I eat tons of this junk without even thinking about it. It's just easier to be ignorant, or force yourself not to think about it. Will I die sooner because of it? Probably, but do I really want to be around when I'm 80+ years old? I'm less than half of that now and I don't know what to do with my time.

Okay, I went off on a death tangent. My point is that there is a cubic buttload of unnecessary ingredients in food that are more than likely harmful. We tend to think that they are there for a purpose, but then a drink like this comes around and proves you wrong. This lemonade soda is simply carbonated water, sugar and lemon (juice, fruit and flavoring). It has a decent shelf life and it tastes great. So what is the point of all the other junk companies use? This tastes like homemade lemonade that was put in a Soda Stream. It tastes like lemons and that is all I could ask for from this. This will not kill me, well unless I get diabetes from the sugar, but that's a different death altogether.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a question that I would like to pose to all of you; who are these drinks for? I'm not trying to be a jerk; I just really want to know. Who are all of the people who are buying and consuming flavored sparkling waters that are sweetened with zero calorie sweeteners? I have never witnessed anyone buy anything like this, let alone drink it. There must be market though because there are a decent amount of companies making them, and you can find them all over the place, where they are not covered in decades of dust. In my experience when someone is looking to drink a diet beverage it's usually a Diet Coke. I have seen countless numbers of them being consumed across the country. Never once have a watched anyone drink one of these though. Are Americans ashamed that they enjoy these and they purchase/consume them in secret? Do they hide them in the center of their shopping cart so that they can surround them with other groceries so that their fellow shoppers are none the wiser?

My opinion on it is if you're looking to drink sparkling water and are watching your calories, just grab a seltzer. Of course who is going to listen to me though? Very few people that is who. Would I ever purchase this drink? No, but I am not the intended consumer. I can't get down with the taste of sucralose. This is actually right at the cusp of the proportion of sucralose to the intended flavor of a beverage. While I wouldn't buy this, I will drink it since it was given to me. I don't hate it, but it's certainly not my favorite. It has a decent strawberry taste that fade into a little lemon flavor. Both of which are combating the chemical taste of the sweetener.

I understand this is made for a certain demographic, and it must sell to them. I'm just not sure who they are.

Okay, let's see…€¦Shoes? Check. Bowtie? Check. Spats? Check. Cumberbund? Check. Coat w/ tails? Check. Oh and I almost forgot the top hat to round it out. There, now that I am dressed in the fanciest clothes I could possibly wear I am prepared to drink this bottle of Frisa. Since I won't ever be drinking champagne in my lifetime I think it is safe to say that this is the fanciest beverage I will ever consume, and I might as well dress accordingly. It's imported, it's simple and it's wonderful.

I was surprised when I unwrapped the bottle that there was a twist off cap and not a cork. I mean there really was no need for a cork, but for the way I'm dressed it would have been nice. I can't really hold that against the company. They have everything else perfect, and I'm sure that would just be a hassle and ruin the drink somehow anyway. I want nothing to ruin this drink. I want a lifetime supply of it. If I could make the taps in my home flow with sparkling elderflower beverage I would die a happy man, and probably sooner than I would otherwise.

I really can't get over how much I enjoy this. It may be the best beverage we have ever reviewed. If not, it is certainly in the top 3. It's sweet and floral in all the right ways. Nothing about this is like sucking on a perfume bottle. It's a totally different beast in the best possible way. I really don't know when the last time was that my taste buds were this happy. This is simply perfect. I expected the price tag to be much higher than it is as well. $10/bottle is not bad at all, especially for the magic you are receiving. I am going to insist that any fancy event I attend from here on out serves me this. If they turn me down I will just refuse to go. That is how much this means to me.

Now my bottle is empty. I feel like a glutton for consuming so much, and I feel ridiculous sitting at my computer in full formal wear, but yes, it was worth it.

Just Chill is quickly falling into the category of drinks that I wish didn't have an intended purpose, because I just like the way they taste. There are times in my life when it's probably not appropriate to chill, but does that mean I should be deprived of delicious beverages?

When most drinks are named something citrus it's a pretty safe bet that orange or pineapple is going to be your forerunning flavors. This is not the case here though. This drink is chock full of lime that actually tastes like limes and I love it. There is a weird hint of lemongrass too. It threw me for a bit but after a few sips I was glad that it was there. I think I detect a slight amount of mint as well, but that could just be my taste buds dreaming of mojitos.

Something that sets Just Chill apart from other relaxation drinks is the exclusion of melatonin and valerian root. As a result you can just calm yourself without falling asleep. I swear the first time I had a Marley Mood I wasn't ready for it and I thought I was going to fall asleep in traffic. There is no fear of that with these drinks. They are simply delicious and calming, just as advertised.

The most important thing that I learned from this soda was that during the 50's in Wisconsin either bread was really expensive, or the mark up on soda pop was very low. The bottle tells a story of how the founder of Twigs would sell a case of soda and use the money he made to by a loaf of bread for his family. With modern production methods you can get a case of cans for more than double what a loaf of bread costs. Taking into consideration the time he put into it and the cost of the bottles that is some crazy math. Who knows maybe wheat was hard to come by in WI during that time. Maybe there was a yeast shortage. All we know is that Twig provided for his family and we applaud him for that.

I was hoping that this would be a lime soda that actually tasted like the green little pieces of citrus, but alas like most sodas this flavor it tastes like melted green freeze pops. Luckily for us there is not that harshness that comes along with that particular confection. Kids would love this, but it doesn't really have a place in my life. It may be the only lime soda I have ever had that uses cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup though, so that's something. I wonder if I could still buy this with bread.

If you are like Mike and I, then you probably resemble a child more than an adult and you also probably don't have a taste for coffee, but you have an affinity for mocha drinks. Just think about how we, and yes I'm including you in this mix up, would love to put that delicious chocolate-ness in a better base. The sky is the limit my friends and that is just what REBBL is reaching for.

For this mocha elixir coffee has been thrown to the curb. In it's place we have a mixture of coconut milk, chicory root, carob, maca extract, vanilla extract, pink salt, quillaja extract and stevia. I'm not ashamed to admit that I am a big dumb-dumb head and I assumed that maca was the same thing as macha, which it definitely is not. I thought this was going to be a chocolate green tea of sorts, but that it is not. Maca is actually a root vegetable that is known to enhance vitality, stamina and energy. I don't think that I can even taste the maca, but it's doing its job. Actually, besides from the ridiculously great chocolate flavor most of what I get is the coconut. It tastes a bit like toasted coconut but it's not too overpowering, which is great because I can't stand toasted coconut, and I can still love this beverage. I also get a bit of chicory, which I can only distinguish because I was forced to drink coffee in New Orleans where this root is mixed in with the beans. It, and I'm assuming the maca, give this elixir a nice earthy rooty undertone without distracting from the chocolate. Oh the chocolate, how we love you. How perfect you are.

My first thought when I went to drink this was, “Awesome, another company is using the bottle can hybrid design, and I love it.” The second thing I thought was “What the hell is levulose?” I can't remember where I picked this up, but there was a good chance it was from some strange bodega somewhere in the middle of America, or an Asian market so the origin of the what I assumed to be a sweetener was up in the air. The top of the can/bottle doesn't have any recycling info and just says “Please don't litter. Dispose of properly.” Something about that didn't put mea t ease either. I did learn that it was made is Las Vegas by actually reading the small print. See reading does make life better.

After all of that I still did not know a thing about levulose, so I took to the internet. I have no idea how I have never heard of it before because it is a monosaccharide that is found in honey and fruit. It is also known as fruit sugar. You would think something like that would make cherry flavored water great, but something went horribly wrong. It tastes like a new version of diet. It doesn't taste like sucralose, aspartame or even stevia but it still has a strange “off” taste to it that if I didn't know any better I might claim was someone trying to poison me.

I had expected it to me a lighter flavored beverage, but it's more like someone took a can of cherry pop and mixed it evenly with a bottle of unflavored seltzer. Well that and that weird not quite diet taste I mentioned earlier. I can appreciate companies trying new things, but sometimes they just don't land correctly.

Is it fair to judge this beverage against other ginger beers when it is meant to be a mixer? I mean it's pretty much just regular old ginger beer with a different marketing scheme behind it. Stoli is a Russian vodka company that is trying to sell the “Moscow Mule” with this beverage. If you don't know (like I didn't) that is vodka, ginger beer and lime juice mixed. Alcoholics prefer vodka when they are trying to be sneaky right? I think I remember that from some television show. I think it had something to do with it not making your breath smell. Either way, if you're going to be a sneaky alcoholic you might as well get some good flavor out of it and a Moscow Mule sounds like it would be delicious, minus the whole vodka thing (I will never understand the allure of the taste of alcohol).

The thing is that I don't think this stands up to other ginger beers. It has a nice ginger flavor, but only the most minimal of burns, which if we're being honest is one of the best parts of this specific soda type. There is also something in it that at first I thought was a zero calorie sweetener, but then realized it was salt. I don't know why it's in here as it has no place in soda. Perhaps it's part of the Mule mix, but if that were the case why wouldn't this be lime ginger beer? Speaking of, now I really want a bottle of that. It sounds delicious. The sale though…€¦yeah it's a bit distracting.

This is good on its own, but not in regards to other ginger beers. I'm sure it would work just perfectly for its intended mixer function. I will never find out though.

Blood orange, the most metal of flavors, is quickly becoming a hackneyed flavor for me. It's like people are making it the "cooler orange" when it's really just a little bit different. Sweeter than citric. That's all. Does that make it cooler? I don't think so. You know what would make it cooler? If it came around in a dope leather jacket. That would make it different than all the other citric lemmings.

How does this fare? A little bit different than an orange pop. A little bit different than any old orange pop. This is fine. It's not going to win any awards but if you did something to make it different (leather jacket) it might be something special. For now it's just orange pop to someone that isn't familiar with the likes of Thirsty Dudes. At this point we've reached millions of people though. Right? Millions? Is my decimal in the right place. No? Tens? Oh come on! We're better than that. Jay! Tell them we're better than that.

There are a whole mess of zero calorie, sweetened sparkling waters on the market. While that statement is a fact this may be the only one who's name isn't a reference to ice or being frozen. So for that, I thank you Claire Baie. Those names irrationally drove me crazy. Another difference is that this beverage has some juice in it, and as a result it is better than the rest, even though it is still sweetened with sucralose.

Oh how I wish this wasn't sweetened with sucralose. I understand it's a drink with a purpose, but tasting it I can tell how great this could have been. Actually, if they wanted to keep it zero calories they should have just forgone the sweetener altogether. I probably would have loved it that way. As it stands it's not horrible and is on the better side of the sucralose scale. It really tastes like berries and the diet taste is a bit hidden under that. It still has that coldness, which the other companies base their names off of. That coldness is simply not for me, but for what this is and compared to its contemporaries it's a clear winner.

I've been duped again. I see a larger bottle labeled “sparking water” and my mind goes to seltzer. I think, “Oh, this will be good to drink at band practice” only to take a sip and realize that it is sweetened with sucralose. This is the third or fourth time this has happened to me over the past year, and you'd think that I would learn to just look at the ingredients. Maybe I just like living on the edge. Maybe I crave the danger and excitement to breathe life into my veins. Maybe I am just dumb and I keep forgetting.

If this were a seltzer it would have a nice cherry flavor that doesn't resemble medicine too much. I would have been perfectly content with it. As it stands it is more diet than cherry, and that bodes well for no one.

I just thought to myself, “Who could ever drink all of this in one sitting?” Then I realized that it's meant for multiple servings. Yup, I was right at the end. I am in fact dumb.

You know how you get served a giant mound of pancakes and you pour that golden syrup all over it to give it a nice sticky sweetness that you love so much? Oh you do, well can you explain it to me because I think that it is disgusting. In fact I eat my pancakes completely dry. That's right, not even butter gets spread on my cakes. I'm sure that second fact makes me look like a sociopath of some sort, but I simply do not like syrup.

I've given many maple flavored products a chance over the years and they simply don't do it for me. When I picked this up I thought to myself, “Well, I have to do it.” Lucky for me I only get the faintest, if any, maple flavor in this bottle of root beer. Actually the most notable thing about this soda is that it may be the crispest root beer I have ever tried. It's like someone took a regular root beer and an unflavored soda that was pure crispness and mixed equal parts and put just the tiniest dab of maple syrup in it. The result is that even the root beer flavor isn't very strong, but it's there enough to be pleasant.

This is a different type of soda, and I can appreciate it for that, but if anyone got this and was excited to get some maple flavor they would be sorely disappointed.

Ohh! So bitter. So adult. This drink is the sedan of drinks. This drink is the station wagon of drinks. This is a mature drink. This is a drink for mature people. This drink is punishment for your kids when they get out of line. Failed a test? Sparkling bitters. Hit a kid? Sparkling bitters. Peed in their pants? Sparkling bitters.

Is it bad? Not if you are in the right mindset. It's bitter. As soon as you accept it, it kind of tastes like a lemon rind. I don't know where the bitter comes from but it's there, man and it's strong. It's not sour. I don't know if you thought you were drinking poorly made lemonade but it's far from that. This is something you wonder if they made it wrong or if you're supposed to mix it with something. This is a drink to drink in the land of confusion.

Izze has expanded their grasp and now they have a line of “sparkling water beverages,” which is kind of just code for seltzer water. At least it would be if they didn't add just a touch of sugar (2g per bottle). It's a good marketing strategy. A lot of people are turned off when they hear the word seltzer, and when people see a drink is only 10 calories and it doesn't have stevia, erythritol, sucralose or any of those other guys in there I feel like they would be more likely to grab one.

It tastes like seltzer with the dryness rolled back just a little. I get a berry flavor, but no pear. There is a weird grain-esque aftertaste that I do not understand at all. Do pears taste like barley in some world that I am not a part of? It gives it a strange twist, but it's one of those flavors that you quickly become acclimated to and no longer notice.

What we have here is a beverage with an identity problem. It knows what it is as a beverage, but not where it's from. It most certainly is a sparkling blood orange juice with sugar added. That is obvious from one delicious taste of the bitter fruit whose edge has been taken off by something sweet. What of its origins? The bottle says that it is a product of Italy, the website says that it is from the UK, and yet I found it in a run of the mill grocery store in Lansing, MI of all places. Where does It's story start, and will it come to an end in Michigan? I can safely answer “no” to that as I traveled with it through Canada back to Buffalo, NY, where I consumed it. It's a drink of the world, and you can enjoy it wherever you happen to be.

"Don't bother" would be my response to the statement, "I'm going to carbonate tea." Sure, it's a real "millennial" response but seriously, don't bother. Iced tea is like the perfect drink and you're going to ruin it with a million sugars. Yeah, I said it. This drink is ruined. It's got citrus but it tastes more like someone dumped half a can of Sprite into...something. I am not sure if there is tea in this to be honest. Aren't I always honest with you, friends? This kind of stinks. How's that for honest? It's too sweet and I don't like it. You like that? Brutal. It might be sweeter than actual Sprite. They really let this drink have it. Woo! So sweet. So bad. Peace.

Sometimes in life you just want a nice cold bottle of cream soda. When the vanilla hits your taste buds, sometimes it's just what you need. It's not often that I get these cravings, but when I do, it feels so good to have that itch scratched. When an descriptor is added to a soda flavor that you don't normally hear, it intrigues me. When I read “dark cream” my mind wandered to two places. A soda that is very intensely vanilla and secondly, and more probably a cream soda that is heavy on caramel. I didn't quite get either. Actually I'm not sure what exactly is making this cream soda dark. It's actually a little light on the vanilla and there is an aftertaste that I cannot place. That unknown flavor may actually be stronger than the vanilla. I find it distracting, but it could be one of those things that once someone tells me what it is, it will all make sense and I will enjoy it more. Right now, it's just not doing much for me.

There is a hierarchy in the world of sparkling beverages. Much like in karate you have to go on a “journey” and complete tasks in order to reach the next tier. Wait, do you have to perform certain tasks to move onto the next belt in karate, or does it just depend on the amount of time you spend in the classes? I mean what if you have a natural talent and within the first month you can just destroy everyone in class, but show the reserve not to, do you move up the belt ranks faster? Let's just say you need to work for it and gain wisdom to move up.

You start off as a child and someone puts a garbage cup of pop in front of you. It's insanely sweet because it's full of high fructose corn syrup. You're little mind and taste buds aren't developed enough, so you think it's the greatest thing in the world. Any brand, any flavor they are all incredible to you. As time goes on you decide you prefer certain flavors and certain brands just taste better. Look at you, you've gained a new color belt. Later on in life you discover that soda sweetened with cane sugar is far superior to that with HFCS and you don't' really want to touch the garbage stuff anymore. Level up my friend. Before you know it you're an adult and your tastes have continued to evolve. Before you know it you find yourself saying things like, “Oh no thanks that is just too sweet for me.” You'll get a can of soda and drink half of it at most. You realize that there is something to flavored seltzer water and that it calms your craving for carbonation without making you feel like garbage. As you don your new imaginary soda belt you think to yourself, “This is it. I've finally reached adulthood.” You may not realize it but there is another belt. That belt is called tonic and bitters, and I for one am not quite there yet. Maybe I will when I'm in my 50's as it took me 35 years to accept seltzer as my lord and savior. Perhaps when I reach a half century on this planet I will raise a glass of bitters take a sip and say, “This certainly hits the spot, and I can die peacefully now because I know tranquility.” All of the meditation in the world cannot get you to the place of inner peace that you reach when you let tonic and bitters into your life. It is the true enlightenment, or so I can only imagine.

I hope to someday reach the final belt, but until then I will just have to sip these drinks and wonder desperately what it is about them that is alluring. I don't hate them, but I don't think I really enjoy them either. If you take a sip of this and don't breathe out it's like you're drinking a nice white peach seltzer. The fruit flavor is soft and light. It's pleasant. Then you exhale and the bitterness sets in. That aftertaste is so specific and strange to me. I will someday comprehend and enjoy it, or I will have failed as a Thirsty Dude.

Well, la-di-da, Mr. Frenchman. French soda. What a great name for something that just pop as far as I'm concerned. Added to the fact that erythritol is in it which makes it totally more American, don't expect something exotic. This is not escargot. This is pop and I will review it as such.

Tangerine pomegranate. It's a nice, lighter flavor. Maybe that's what makes it "French" is that it's not a million grams of sugar and syrup. I'm not giving it to them. I'm not holding an embargo on France, but I'm not accepting that this is anything different that a lightly flavored pop. It's good. Ol' fashioned American pop can come across as heavy and too sweet. This is absolutely not that and I don't miss the "extra" or "bonus" flavor at all. This would be a nice transition between, say "American pop" and something like a seltzer or even a Dry pop as that is basically "almost soda."

A car hole.